


outrun an avalanche

by lorspolairepeluche



Series: The Inquisitor's First Lady [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fall of Haven, halla has trouble with Feelings, halla stubbornly stays at the first stage of grief (denial) and it pays off
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 10:26:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8664175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lorspolairepeluche/pseuds/lorspolairepeluche
Summary: They may have been forced to leave Haven behind, but Halla will not leave Sethras behind.





	

“What? No!”

Seth looked past Cullen to find Halla pushing herself away from the huddled group of his companions. “You can’t! That thing will kill you!”

“Have to,” Seth replied resolutely. “I will not let it get any of you. Please. Halla.”

She stopped when he used her given name rather than “Lady Trev” or just “my lady.” She bit her lip for a moment before speaking again, much softer. “You gonna come back, yeah?” She’d dropped into the Ostwick accent she only used when no one but Seth was around. “You come back, Adaar. Or I kick your ass. Hear me?”

He managed a smile at her. “Yeah. I come back.”

Halla nodded and stepped back, but still resisted Dorian’s tug on her wrist. “Go. Kick its ass, and I don’t kick yours.” She turned to follow the others to the secret passage, and Seth turned to leave the Chantry.

Halla’s last sight as she looked back, hesitating just a few more seconds, was Seth’s broad shoulders working as he pushed the doors to the Chantry open and went to protect his people.

—

The Iron Bull trudged up to the mouth of the camp, where a single figure stood vigil. “Hey.” He nudged her with the blanket he carried. “Brought you this.”

“Don’t need it,” Halla said without looking, still speaking the same shortened dialect. “ _He_ don’t have one.”

“He’s not a skinny human like you,” Bull reminded her. “And he won’t thank you if you freeze before he gets back.” He draped the blanket around her shoulders as he coaxed, “Let someone else keep watch.” He knew it was a futile attempt, but at least she’d clutched the blanket tighter around her, her shoulders hunching slightly against the wind.

She still didn’t look at Bull as she said, “No. Need to be here. Need to see him.”

Bull put a hand on her back over the blanket. “Yeah,” he said softly. “I know.”

“And if he don’t come back, I go after him.” Halla’s voice was still strong. “Go after him and bring him back and kick his ass. He _promised._ ”

Bull glanced back as he heard stirring behind him, muffled by the distance to the main camp. Cassandra and Cullen were making their way up the hill, Cullen pulling the fur collar of his coat higher. “You here to take over the watch?” Bull called.

“We’re going to look for the Herald,” Cassandra answered shortly.

Halla’s head turned for the first time since she’d begun her vigil. “I’m coming with.” She started to shrug the blanket off her shoulders, but Cullen placed his hand over it, staying her.

“It’s cold out there,” he warned.

“Adaar’s out there,” Halla returned. “Gonna fuckin’ find him and bring him back. Kick his ass.”

“I don’t think there’s much chance we’ll find anything,” Cullen said gently, but Halla shoved him away, the blanket dropping to the ground.

“Don’t give a damn what you think, do I, Cullen Rutherford?” she snapped. “I’m getting Adaar back even if I gotta _drag_ him for a mile!”

“The avalanche probably—”

“He is _not_ dead!” Halla shouted. “No! Why’re you looking for him if he is? You know, well as I do, that he’s still out there. Needs our help.” _Needs my help._

Cullen had already opened his mouth to speak again, but Cassandra said sharply, “Cullen. Every moment we waste could be fatal.”

“I’ll come with too,” the Iron Bull volunteers. “He’s not gonna be in any shape to walk back to camp with as long as he’s been out there.” He put his hand on Halla’s shoulder, and that closed the conversation. “Let’s go.”

—

Halla shivered for the third time in ten seconds, hunching her shoulders higher and shouting again: “Adaar!”

The wind threw her words back into her face, and she scrubbed tears away, telling herself that they were from the stinging cold. She tried again: “Adaar! _Adaar!_ ”

Bull put his hand on her back. “Yelling’s not gonna do much in this wind,” he warned. “Save your energy.”

But she held up a hand to silence him, her eyes suddenly wide and her shoulders relaxing, as if she didn’t feel the cold anymore. “What’s that?”

Bull looked up. Through the swirling snow…he could just make out the faintest of shapes…the furthest of cries.

“… _Lady Trev?_ ”

“Adaar!” Halla leapt forward. The snow barely seemed to hinder her as she sprinted toward the foggy shape so many yards away.

“Cassandra! Cullen!” Bull shouted over the wind.

The other two searchers turned. Cullen’s eyes followed where Bull pointed out Halla plunging through the snow and the figure slowly making its way toward them. “There! It’s him!” Cullen’s voice was loud in relief, and Cassandra’s echoed him.

“Thank the Maker!”

Sethras’s legs gave out just as Halla reached him. She fell to her knees with him, keeping him upright in a show of remarkable strength. “Adaar, Adaar,” she kept saying. “You’re alive; we found you.”

“Lady Trev,” he breathed, his hands shaking as they came up to brace on her arms. “You…you come after me?”

“Yeah. Yeah, Adaar. Came after you. Ain’t let you stay out here and freeze, trust me.”

“Sorry…you…you must…exhausted… Already you…you fight, and you run…and now you come after me…”

Halla let out a bark of laughter, lightheaded with relief. “Don’t matter. Don’t matter. We found you. We found you, Seth.” She wrapped her arms around him as best she could as Bull caught up. “You came back,” she whispered, her eyes shut tight to keep the tears back.

Seth managed half a smile, fighting to keep his eyes open as his teeth chattered. “Had to…come back. Or you…kick my ass. Right?”

“Right,” Halla agreed in a choked voice, her fingers tightening in his coat. “Come on. Gonna take you back to camp. You gonna live. You gonna be safe now. Promise.”

“I got him,” Bull said gently, tugging Seth up and onto his back. “Let’s get him back.”

—

Cassandra went ahead, and so the entire camp was waiting with bated breath when the Iron Bull trekked in with the unconscious Herald on his back, with the Commander and the Savior of Ostwick on either side of him. The Inquisition broke into roaring cheers at the sight of their savior, and only a few noticed that Lady Trevelyan kept a hand on the Herald’s back, as if constantly reassuring herself he was still there.

Three hours later, Halla looked up when someone touched her shoulder. “Mother Giselle.”

“Child, you are exhausted,” the Mother said gently. “You should sleep too.” She held up a hand, forestalling Halla’s prepared argument. “Please. I will keep watch over the Herald. He will not thank you if you make yourself sick over him.”

Halla glanced once more to where Seth slept, peaceful and unmoving as he had been for hours. Her eyes flicked down to his hand, still gripped in hers, warm once again after sitting by the fire for so long. “Fine,” she said quietly. “Just…promise—wake me up when…when he comes to.” She lifted Seth’s hand to her lips and kissed it once before placing it gently at his side and going to the cot on his other side as Mother Giselle took her place to keep vigil.

Halla settled on her side, her eyes still on Seth. _He came back,_ was her last thought, and she was asleep almost before her eyes closed.

—

Music woke her. Singing. A hymn. She was murmuring along before she realized: “The night is long, and the path is dark. Keep to the stars, for one day soon, the dawn will come.”

Halla pushed back the blankets—strange, those hadn’t been there when she fell asleep; they’d been covering Seth—and stood from her cot, assessing, looking, searching.

There.

He stood a short ways away, his back to her, and Halla trailed off as the people of the Inquisition began _kneeling_ before him as they sang. Seth’s back stiffened in surprise, and Halla’s feet stilled. More and more joined the first few in genuflection as the last verse of the hymn rang through the camp, sung by dozens of voices.

“Bare your blade, and raise it high! Stand your ground; the dawn will come! The night is long, and the path is dark. Keep to the stars, for one day soon, the dawn will come.”

The last notes died down, and Halla watched Mother Giselle murmur something to Seth. Her feet started forward almost without her thinking, and Seth heard her footsteps and turned.

Those golden eyes were the best sight Halla had seen all night, and a smile came unbidden to her face as she nearly broke into a run toward him and he smiled, too—

“A word.”

Halla stopped dead as Solas, of all people, passed in front of Seth, his two curt words freezing the swelling in her heart. Seth’s eyes flicked to her again, apologetic, as he started after Solas. So close… Halla’s hand reached out as if to grab at him, but he was already starting away, and her fingers closed on nothing.

Slowly, slowly, Halla drew her hand back to herself, watching Solas and Seth walk toward the edge of camp. The night suddenly seemed much colder, and her arms wrapped around herself as she leaned against one of the poles holding up the tarp under which she and Seth had slept. Even her tears were cold. She pressed the heel of her hand to her eyes, ineffectually trying to stop herself. She remembered the fear choking her when she watched Seth go, the despair that made her scream “NO!” when they watched the avalanche bury Haven, the overwhelming _joy_ when she saw him come back. _No,_ she told herself firmly. _You can’t. Not that. Especially not for him. That’s not for you._ He’s _not for you._ Her arms tightened around herself.

_What are you_ doing, _Halla?_


End file.
